Armed Forces and Veterans: Administrative Support

Lord Bach: My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence (Mr Ivor Caplin) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement:
	I am announcing today that I have asked the Deputy Chief of Defence Staff for Personnel to explore whether there is scope for further service improvement through the greater integration of services delivered by the Armed Forces Personnel Administration Agency and the Veterans Agency. This is consistent with our overall policy at the Ministry of Defence to continue to improve the administrative support we provide to the Armed Forces and veterans.
	This study will build on the opportunities offered by the joint personnel administration programme that will go live progressively during 2006. This review will take full account of the Government's intent to maintain a sharp focus on the delivery of services to all veterans. Trade unions, staff and customers including veterans' groups will be consulted before any conclusions are reached. I expect to report on the outcome of the study before the Summer Parliamentary Recess.

British Electricity Trading and Transmission Arrangements: "Go Live" Date

Lord Sainsbury of Turville: My honourable friend the Minister for Energy and E-Commerce (Mike O'Brien) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
	I have announced that the "go live" date for the British Electricity Trading and Transmission Arrangements (BETTA) will be 1 April 2005. BETTA will bring together Scotland's transmission networks and the network in England and Wales to create a single GB electricity market.
	I have also announced our intention to limit the charges renewable generators on the Scottish islands, and potentially in the far north of the Scottish mainland, will have to pay to the National Grid to transmit electricity to customers across Britain. I am doing this under a power taken in the Energy Act 2004. Exercise of this power will ensure that remote location is no bar to renewable development, which can make an important contribution to the Government's target of having 10 per cent renewable energy by 2010. We will be consulting on the details of the scheme in the summer.

Health Delivery Plan and Action Plans

Lord Warner: My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Public Health (Miss Johnson) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
	The Government's Public Health White Paper Choosing Health: making healthier choices easier, launched in November 2004, set out commonsense steps to prevent unnecessary deaths and help people to make healthier choices.
	The delivery plan for choosing health, published today, explains how government will put these plans into practice. It includes 45 "big wins" which the evidence suggests will make the greatest impact on health. It also covers policies and programmes which will be developed and implemented, targets to improve health, partnerships between industry, the voluntary sector and professional groups, and services delivered by local authorities and the NHS.
	Delivering Choosing Health is backed up by two action plans: Choosing a Better Diet: a food and health action plan; and Choosing Activity: a physical activity action plan also published today.
	Choosing a Better Diet: a food and health action plan, brings together, in one place, all the White Paper commitments relating to food and nutrition as well as further activity across government. This includes action to improve information to enable healthier eating, restrict further the advertising and promotion of foods to children, increase access to healthier food, simplified food labelling, and improve school food.
	Choosing Activity: a physical activity action plan sets out, for the first time, co-ordinated cross-government action on promoting physical activity and sport. It highlights the leadership role of the NHS and the importance of close partnership working across sectors, particularly with local authorities, to bring about positive change in activity levels across the whole population. The plan outlines a national framework to complement and support work at a regional and local level. It details an extensive range of departmental commitments such as action to promote active travel through increased walking and cycling, work to improve the physical environment of communities to encourage more active living, and programmes to increase participation in sport and leisure activities.
	Copies have been placed in the Library.